1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to robotic devices. In particular, this invention provides method and apparatus for managing multiple moveable robotic devices sharing a physical space.
2. Background Information
Automated laboratory workstations, such as are used for biochemical assays, generally have several tools that need access in turn to the same physical location. A computer system controls the tools to perform one or more procedures chosen by a user. A single procedure commonly entails component tasks to be completed by more than one of the tools, at various locations around the workstation platform. Scheduling software organizes the component tasks of all the chosen procedures into an agenda.
When the computer system executes the agenda so that tool movements are performed serially in a predetermined coordinated sequence, avoiding collisions between tools is relatively straightforward, since the tools do not act concurrently. However, requiring all but one tool to be idle at any given time—even if the other tools need to perform tasks in nonoverlapping sections of the workspace—slows the completion of procedures.
An alternative approach would involve generating, from the agenda, a dedicated routine for each of the tools and allowing the tools to carry out their routines concurrently, so that distinct tasks could be performed simultaneously. However, such parallel execution introduces the possibility of collision between tools as two or more tools independently attempt to occupy the same physical location in the platform simultaneously. Collision prevention in this case would require complex scheduling algorithms that essentially choreograph the entire procedure.